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Catra fidgets with her hands while standing outside of Adora’s apartment. She doesn’t really know why she agreed to the date. Especially when their dynamic worked. They would joke about liking each other, dismiss any of their friends trying to get them together, and she would cry herself to sleep every month. It worked. Which is why when Adora said just wear anything, Catra chose to wear her favorite two-tone hoodie (stolen from Adora) and some jean shorts. She got to keep Adora in her life. Catra takes a deep breath before raising her hand to knock, but before she can even hit the door once…
The door is pulled quickly open. So fast that the knob hits the wall. Catra, wide-eyed, stares at the door before looking at Adora. Adora doesn’t even seem to register the bang that came from her wall. Catra looks between the door and Adora, trying to convey her question before saying,
“Um, Adora? What the fuck?”
Adora stares at Catra, not even hearing anything that she just said. Catra looks into her eyes and sees them flicking down a little and then back up into her eyes. Adora just keeps staring. Catra finally tired of just standing outside in the hall, clears her throat and says,
“Hey, princess. You gonna let me in or what?”
Adora shakes her head before finally realizing Catra’s been standing outside and she still hasn’t said a thing to her.
“Oh, hey Catra, what’s up?”
Catra shifts her weight to one leg and crosses her arms.
“Waiting for you to let me in, dummy?”
Adora steps to the side.
“Oh shit, yeah. Um. Come on in.”
Catra finally enters her apartment and checks out what Adora is wearing. Adora has a jersey over her sports bra and a pair of black leggings.
“So, where we going?”
Adora comes from behind to stand in front of Catra.
“Oh, we’re staying here.
Catra’s eyebrow rises and curiously says,
“Your idea for a first date is to stay in your apartment?”
Adora, looking apprehensive at Catra’s change of tone, responds,
“Um, yes. I mean, I know how you are in crowded areas and loud areas, and this is our first one, so I thought it could be just us.”
Adora takes a deep breath before smiling brightly at Catra. Catra shakes her head before saying.
“You’re something, princess.”
“I’m something alright, that something is a person who is going to treat you to the best first date ever!”
Catra laughs at her.
“Idiot. Ok, what’s the plan then?”
“Nothing much. I just got your favorite food.”
Catra walks past her further into the apartment. Adora moves to catch her arms from behind to stop her from entering the kitchen.
“Nope, you go sit in the living room. I’ll bring it over.”
Catra eyes her wearily,
“Ok, what the heck is going on? Why can’t I go into the kitchen?”
Adora stands up a little taller and makes her arms as big as she can to block the way towards the kitchen. She nervously says,
“No reason. Just thought it’d be the right thing to do by bringing your food to you.”
Adora chuckles. Catra narrows her eyes at her before relenting and going to the living room. Adora lets out a big sigh of relief before entering the kitchen. She yells to Catra,
“Go ahead and put whatever you want to watch on!”
Catra in the other room responds,
“Yeah.”
Catra doesn’t even touch the remote. She’s too busy staring at the setup Adora made. Instead of it being the normal beat-up couch she helped move in here, there are Adora’s pillows making the seats actually look comfortable.
“That idiot”.
~~~
Back in the kitchen with Adora, she is plating the food. Her hands shakily move the food into something that doesn’t just look like some noodles on a plate. After making it more presentable with chicken on the side and some vegetables, Adora puts her hands over her mouth and thinks,
‘Ok, don’t mess up. It’s just your best friend that you have wanted to date for years. It’s like Bow and Glimmer say, she said you already did the hard part.’
Adora is freaking out because she took the initiative and asked Catra out. She feels like it has to be perfect or else they’ll forever be stuck in the friend zone. She pulled out all of the stops. The food was handmade instead of just getting it from a restaurant. She made sure her roommates were out of the apartment for the night and that neither of their friend groups would bother them tonight. Her phone pings with a message from Glimmer, so she stops messing with the plates to check it.
“You’ve got this, Adora. Bow also says to breathe. You guys have basically been dating for the past four years. Now you just do that, but at the end of the night, you can kiss her. Enjoy the night.”
Adora’s face goes red after reading that. She puts her phone in her pocket and picks up the plates before heading over to the living room.
~~~
Catra is busy scrolling through the movies on the screen as Adora sets the plates down.
“Couldn’t find anything?”
“Too much garbage to look through. You spend almost as much time looking for something to watch as you do watching stuff.”
“Yeah, it’s the worst. Here’s your food.”
“This doesn’t look like the noodles from Bella Notte?”
“That’s cause it’s not. I made it from scratch.”
“What? Why?”
“I wanted it to be special. Not just us, hanging out like usual.”
“And is this salmon?”
“Yeah, like I said, I wanted to make it special. Your favorite type of main dish is salmon, so I wanted to make it. I had to practice a couple of times, though, and I burned my first attempt.”
Catra is just staring at Adora’s face with a look of surprise and awe. Adora is looking at the food.
“Glimmer and Bow hated the smell, but you like fish.”
Adora realizes Catra is just staring and not saying anything. She turns her body toward Catra more.
“Hey, what’s with the staring? Did you not want to eat it? We could order something and have it delivered if you want. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all.”
Catra doesn’t say a thing but does slide over to sit right next to Adora. She wraps her arms around Adora’s neck, bringing her into a hug. Adora doesn’t know what caused her to do that, but she wraps her hands around Catra and just waits for her to say something. Catra pulls away and has a couple of tears slowly running down her face.
“Sorry, it’s stupid.”
Adora puts her hands on the sides of Catra’s head
“It’s not stupid. Did you forget we grew up together?”
Adora lets out a nervous laugh.
“Look, we got out of the system, you got away from the old lady years after I left, and you were alone for a couple more!”
Adora wipes a few tears away from Catra’s eyes.
“I’ve liked you for over a decade now. Before I even knew what it meant to like someone. Before I knew I liked women. You had to do that by yourself in that horrible household.”
Catra chuckles into Adora’s shoulder.
“I freaked out when I saw you at orientation. I wanted to ask you out the second I saw you. Then, of course, there was the freshman year animosity between us. But no matter how many mean things you said and how many fights we got into, we always came back to each other.”
Adora moves her hands from Catra’s face, down to her shoulders, and brings her back in for a hug, her face angled toward Catra’s ear, and she whispers.
“And no matter how much I tried to get rid of my feelings for you, I couldn’t get rid of them entirely.”
Adora turns head away from Catra’s so she can talk at a regular volume.
“I’m a hopeless romantic, and these feelings make me think this is it for me. That I’m never going to find another person who makes me feel like you make me feel. But if you want to call this dating thing off, then we’ll stop.”
Catra abruptly pulls back from Adora. Adora’s face falls, and she solemnly says.
“Ok, sorry for … “
Catra wipes her tears from her eyes and starts shaking her head and hands.
“No, no, no. I’m not saying I want to stop this. We haven’t even tried, really. I started crying almost instantly. I pulled back because you were starting to say stupid stuff.”
Catra stands up to walk in front of Adora.
“Look, I was hesitant to say yes. That’s why I said no every other time you asked. I’m scared of what happens if this doesn’t work. I don’t want to lose you again. I can’t lose you again. I know I shouldn’t think like that because I do like you. But it’s there. I can’t get rid of it.”
Catra starts pacing back and forth in front of the tv.
“I haven’t told you anything about what she did to me after you got away. I found out I liked you right before you left. It devastated me when I found out you did. Then she found out I liked girls. You remember how she treated me. It got so much worse. But that’s not important right now.”
Adora shakes her head, and her face shifts into a disbelieving one.
“I annoyed, fought, and did everything I could to get you to hate me. I wanted you to push me away.”
Catra lets out a sad laugh.
“You did every now and then. Then you would, for some reason, come try to be my friend again. I don’t deserve you.”
Adora stands up while Catra is pacing toward the wall and moves to stand in front of her when she turns back around. Adora stops Catra from walking by putting their hands on her shoulders.
“Ok. Many things. One, we’re unpacking all of your trauma someday because you need it, two, you need to breathe for me, and three, come sit down with me.”
Adora grabs Catra’s hand and pulls her to sit on the couch.
“I’m not going to leave even if this doesn’t work out. You aren’t getting rid of me that easily. You’re doing that thing where you push people away because you don’t want to be open and vulnerable. I meant what I said. You might be it for me. You might ruin dating for me.”
Catra looks terrified at that.
“I don’t mean that literally, but it will hurt. I want you to remember, though, that I will go back to being your best friend.”
Adora pauses to rub Catra’s hand with her own.
“After a period of sadness, of course.”
Catra laughs at that.
“But, we should stop talking like this date is over and the relationship is doomed before we even really started. I say, I go microwave the food, you actually pick something to put on in the background, and we see what happens.”
Adora gives Catra the biggest smile she can force her facial muscles to do. Catra thinks it is honestly a little scary the way her face looks. Adora tilts her head to the side, looking like a puppy wondering what you just said. Catra grabs the remote and looks at the TV.
“Just go warm up the food, dummy.”
Adora hops up excitedly and grabs the plates before skipping to the kitchen. Saying on her way,
“I’m going to make your face hurt from smiling too much.”
Catra shakes her head and wipes the last of her tears from her eyes before a blush appears on her cheeks.
~~~
Now, later, the plates are empty on the coffee table, and they are both lying down on the couch. Catra has her head resting on Adora’s shoulder while they finish watching D.E.B.S.
“What time is it?”
Adora picks up her phone.
“11:30. Why?”
Catra shifts so her head is now angled at Adora’s face.
“How’d you get sparkles to stay out so late?”
“I let her and Bow know that a Paramore cover band was performing at some bar. You know Glimmer is all over pop-punk.”
“Ughh. Don’t talk about anything else related to her music choices. I still have nightmares about that project we had to do in junior year. She played nothing but Avril for that week.”
Adora laughs at that.
“She does go a little overboard, but you like her anyway.”
Catra grumbles at that but doesn’t refute it.
“She’s ok. I guess.”
Adora sits up, and starts poking Catra’s side.
“You big softie. You like your friends.”
Catra fights Adora’s hands, trying to get her to stop.
“Stop poking me. I said she was ok.”
“Nu-uh, say you like our friends.”
Adora tries to keep poking her, and Catra backs up on the couch until her back hits the armrest. She looks around for a way out, but Adora has her hands out to her sides, trying to make herself big.
“No way out of this, Catra.”
Catra is frantic, her eyes wide before she stills. Her eyes shifted from petrified to confident. Instead of trying to find a way out, she advances on Adora. Adora is now the one looking around and trying to back away.
“Now, now, princess, where are you going?”
Catra keeps advancing.
“Weren’t you saying I had no way out?”
Adora’s back hits the other armrest.
“Wait, Catra!”
“Oh, is someone a little flustered?”
Catra places her hands on Adora’s shoulders and spins her so she lands on her back on the couch. Catra is sitting on Adora’s lap with her hands keeping her steady. They are staring into each other's eyes deeply. Their breaths are the only thing audible as the movie has stopped.
“Whoa, so what now, Catra?”
Catra pants a couple of times.
“I don’t really know.”
Adora moves so she’s resting on her elbows, which puts her face inches away from Catra’s.
“Well, it’s late and I don’t think I’ll be able to walk you up to your door. So, there’s something I want to do right now,”
“And what is that princess?”
“You want me to tell you or show you?”
“Just hurry up and kiss me, dummy.”
Adora leans the rest of the way up to press her lips to Catra’s. Just as they are about to meet, the entrance door opens and Glimmer is belting out ‘That’s What You Get’ by Paramore towards the hallway.
“That’s what you get when you let your heart win! Whoa!”
The two of them freeze. Not making any noise and just staring at the door. Bow enters behind her and notices the position they’re in.
“Whoa, Glimmer kitchen”
“Why?”
“Just get in the kitchen.”
She spins around to continue walking.
“I want to get this makeup off though…”
Her voice trails off as she sees the scene in the living room. Her face is an equal mix of shocked and appalled.
“On our couch, Adora!”
Catra looks at Glimmer, frustratedly.
“Why do you have to be so annoying, sparkles?”
The End